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LOW BLOOD SUGAR
- Thread starter YE2GATHER
- Start date
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rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hi and welcome.
I hope your low Blood Glucose incident has been resolved now.
What medication are you using for your diabetes? If it is insulin or Gliclazide then you should have been warned about the possibility of a hypo and how to treat it. You should always carry hypo treatments with you wherever you are and in most rooms in the house and the car if you drive and also of course your testing kit. It is a good idea to stash hypo treatments around the house including the bedside table and the bathroom as a hot bath or shower can cause hypos. If you get one during your sleep it is best not to have to get out of bed and stagger around trying to find something to eat, particularly if you live in a house with stairs. Far too easy to take a tumble. 😱 My testing kit always goes with me to bed and I have a stash of jelly babies and dextrose tablets on the bedside table so that I can reach them when I need them. Always have some in my handbag and pockets of all my coats etc.
Knowing more about your medication and diabetes management routine and when you had the hypo might give us an insight into why it happened.
Hypos can be really scary, especially the first ones. Thankfully 3.8 is a very minor one and is unlikely to have done you any harm but that doesn't mean it didn't make you feel like you were dying, so I am not belittling how ill it made you feel, especially if your levels have been high for a long time and I can totally understand you feeling the ned to go to hospital.
Learning how to manage hypos yourself is an important part of diabetes management, particularly when using insulin. Better still is preventing them from happening but some of us are more prone to them than others and sometimes, as humans we make mistakes. Figuring out why it happened is key to trying to prevent it happening again...... Here on the forum we should be able to help you with that if we know more details about your daily routine, medication and when the hypo happened.
I think the only reassurance I can give you at the moment is that they do get easier to manage the more you have. I have had 69 in the last 90 days and I can now just pop a jelly baby or two in my mouth and give it a good chew (glucose is absorbed quickest through the insides of your mouth, so chewing your dextrose or jelly babies well will give a quicker recovery result than just one or two chews and swallowing) whilst I continue what I was doing, even if that is mucking out my horses, whereas the first few I had I genuinely thought I might die or at the very least pass out. Cold and clammy and sweating and heart trying to climb out of my chest.... it is really scary stuff!
Anyway, I hope it is a long time before you have another one but if you can give us more details we can perhaps pinpoint why it happened.
I hope your low Blood Glucose incident has been resolved now.
What medication are you using for your diabetes? If it is insulin or Gliclazide then you should have been warned about the possibility of a hypo and how to treat it. You should always carry hypo treatments with you wherever you are and in most rooms in the house and the car if you drive and also of course your testing kit. It is a good idea to stash hypo treatments around the house including the bedside table and the bathroom as a hot bath or shower can cause hypos. If you get one during your sleep it is best not to have to get out of bed and stagger around trying to find something to eat, particularly if you live in a house with stairs. Far too easy to take a tumble. 😱 My testing kit always goes with me to bed and I have a stash of jelly babies and dextrose tablets on the bedside table so that I can reach them when I need them. Always have some in my handbag and pockets of all my coats etc.
Knowing more about your medication and diabetes management routine and when you had the hypo might give us an insight into why it happened.
Hypos can be really scary, especially the first ones. Thankfully 3.8 is a very minor one and is unlikely to have done you any harm but that doesn't mean it didn't make you feel like you were dying, so I am not belittling how ill it made you feel, especially if your levels have been high for a long time and I can totally understand you feeling the ned to go to hospital.
Learning how to manage hypos yourself is an important part of diabetes management, particularly when using insulin. Better still is preventing them from happening but some of us are more prone to them than others and sometimes, as humans we make mistakes. Figuring out why it happened is key to trying to prevent it happening again...... Here on the forum we should be able to help you with that if we know more details about your daily routine, medication and when the hypo happened.
I think the only reassurance I can give you at the moment is that they do get easier to manage the more you have. I have had 69 in the last 90 days and I can now just pop a jelly baby or two in my mouth and give it a good chew (glucose is absorbed quickest through the insides of your mouth, so chewing your dextrose or jelly babies well will give a quicker recovery result than just one or two chews and swallowing) whilst I continue what I was doing, even if that is mucking out my horses, whereas the first few I had I genuinely thought I might die or at the very least pass out. Cold and clammy and sweating and heart trying to climb out of my chest.... it is really scary stuff!
Anyway, I hope it is a long time before you have another one but if you can give us more details we can perhaps pinpoint why it happened.
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Which insulin(s) do you use and what do you mean it took you a couple of day's of wobbling? Are you saying that you may have been hypo for a couple of days before you tested your levels?
LANTIS. AND I TOOK A DAY OR SO TO wORK OUT WHY I WAS FEELING A BIT UNSTEADY i knew it was my blood sugar then i checked it 3.8 and went to hospital doctor said alright speak to gp and buy (lift)glucose tablets. ran blood tests all ok. spoke to district nurse on phone told her i think my blood sugar may have gone back to normal and the insulin may belowering it and could i stop. she said speak to the gp im going to do that tommorow.
oh it happened at night bout 11.00. scary because all i ever had in A YEAR IS high readings 12 thereabouts . i was lucky with 9 or 8 maybe. suddenly in feb i noticed a 4.7 and panicked until i read 4.7 is about normal. i thought everything was going well for me at last then 3.8 3.6 then hypo. i think it might have gone right a
Drummer
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
@YE2GATHER Surely if you are using insulin you should be testing several times a day - it is very dangerous if you are not keeping track on your levels.
Leadinglights
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It sounds as if you have been given insulin with no information about testing regularly and keeping hypo treatments to hand at all times or what to do if you get hypo symptoms. Make sure when you see your GP you get some better support about your treatment.
new here i am getting all this wrong. i do check regularly however the nurse said not to worry about it all the time. i have now obtained glucose tablets. i hope my gp takes me of this insulin.
Drummer
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
If you need insulin because you are getting high levels and not making enough of your own then it would not be possible to stop taking it unless you were paying close attention and eating low carb - and even then it would be difficult and really low carb.
Your nurse actually told you to ignore your test results on a daily basis - that is frightening, to be blunt about it.
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
When do you inject your Lantus and how many units? And when do you test your BG levels? In other words what is your daily routine with injecting and testing?
You should have been advised about the risk of Hypos when you were started on insulin and advised to carry hypo treatments with you at all times together with your testing kit.
I wonder what else they haven't told you? Do you drive a car? If so, have they informed you about the rules for driving as an insulin dependent diabetic? Have you notified DVLA and your insurance company? Really hoping you didn't drive to hospital when your levels were 3.8.
I wonder if you are aware that BG levels fluctuate quite considerably throughout the day and night, not just on a day by day basis. Testing once a day will tell you very little indeed. Levels will go up after you eat a meal and then come back down again later. Depending upon when you test the results can vary a lot. For example you could easily be up at 15 an hour after a Sunday roast dinner and down to 3.8 three hours later.
You should have been advised about the risk of Hypos when you were started on insulin and advised to carry hypo treatments with you at all times together with your testing kit.
I wonder what else they haven't told you? Do you drive a car? If so, have they informed you about the rules for driving as an insulin dependent diabetic? Have you notified DVLA and your insurance company? Really hoping you didn't drive to hospital when your levels were 3.8.
I wonder if you are aware that BG levels fluctuate quite considerably throughout the day and night, not just on a day by day basis. Testing once a day will tell you very little indeed. Levels will go up after you eat a meal and then come back down again later. Depending upon when you test the results can vary a lot. For example you could easily be up at 15 an hour after a Sunday roast dinner and down to 3.8 three hours later.
TheClockworkDodo
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Please don't worry about getting things wrong - it sounds as though you have just been given the wrong information. The nurse who said not to worry about testing all the time was completely wrong, if you are on insulin you need to test several times every day, including testing immediately every time you start to feel even the tiniest bit wobbly.
As @Leadinglights and @rebrascora say, when they put you on insulin they should have given you a lot more information and support - so if they want you to stay on it do ask them to give you advice about recognising and dealing with any future hypos. It might also be worth asking about reducing your dose of Lantus or changing to a different basal insulin if they don't think you should come off it altogether. It's possible that you are on too high a dose, or that you'd be better off with a more stable insulin (if you're on a very small dose, for instance, Lantus really isn't suitable, as it's not very stable in small doses).
Hypos are a routine nuisance for everyone on insulin (I often have two or three in a day) but they shouldn't have left you at risk of having them without letting you know what to do as soon as you had one, so that what should have been trivial (if you'd known how to treat it and treated it at once) became serious enough for you to have to go to hospital. Having said that, rapidly dropping blood sugar can be dangerous so in the circumstances it's a very good thing you did go to hospital.
i dont drive and only decided to keep glucose ntablets after this. my lantus is 14 a day
rebrascora
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Good to hear that driving isn't an issue. 14 units of Lanus isn't a lot for a Type 2 diabetic but I imagine if you stopped it you would go too high, so hopefully the nurse will suggest a dose reduction and then keep in touch with you for several weeks afterwards to see how that is working out.
As regards Glucose tablets for treating hypos, if you need them (ie your levels drop below 4) you should chew about 4 of them and then wait 15 mins and then retest to see if your levels have come up above 4. If your levels haven't come up after that 15 mins, then have 3-4 more glucose tablets, wait another 15 mins and retest again until you are above 4. Then have a digestive biscuit or half a slice of toast to help stabilize your levels and prevent them dropping too low again. This is called the 15 minute rule.... 15g fast acting carbs, wait 15mins and then retest and repeat if you are not above 4.
It just sounds like you have been lulled into a false sense of security with your levels being high for so long and perhaps forgotten that hypo treatment advice and maybe not really understanding how variable BG levels are and how important testing is and understanding the numbers..... and perhaps how dangerous insulin can be if you don't understand how it works. We can help you to understand all this here on the forum but you definitely need some input from the nurse on adjusting your insulin dose or perhaps trying a different insulin or possible even a different medication altogether.
As regards Glucose tablets for treating hypos, if you need them (ie your levels drop below 4) you should chew about 4 of them and then wait 15 mins and then retest to see if your levels have come up above 4. If your levels haven't come up after that 15 mins, then have 3-4 more glucose tablets, wait another 15 mins and retest again until you are above 4. Then have a digestive biscuit or half a slice of toast to help stabilize your levels and prevent them dropping too low again. This is called the 15 minute rule.... 15g fast acting carbs, wait 15mins and then retest and repeat if you are not above 4.
It just sounds like you have been lulled into a false sense of security with your levels being high for so long and perhaps forgotten that hypo treatment advice and maybe not really understanding how variable BG levels are and how important testing is and understanding the numbers..... and perhaps how dangerous insulin can be if you don't understand how it works. We can help you to understand all this here on the forum but you definitely need some input from the nurse on adjusting your insulin dose or perhaps trying a different insulin or possible even a different medication altogether.
TheClockworkDodo
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
The dose they put you on to start with tends to be a best guess rather than an exact science, so it often has to be changed. I was put on 16 units of Lantus a day when I was first diagnosed and after a week of having hypos in the night every night they dropped it to 6 units. That made my blood sugar very unstable so I asked to switch to a different insulin.
You'll need to talk to a GP or diabetes nurse about what changes you should make though, it is different for everyone.
You'll need to talk to a GP or diabetes nurse about what changes you should make though, it is different for everyone.
as you SAID THE NURSE MENTIONED IT AND I FORGOT IT appreciate time you took to reply
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